2 Mass. cops save baby from choking

Two Boston cops who have cruised the meanest streets in the city together for the past seven years are used to keeping their senses sharp, and Saturday that saved the life of a choking 4-year-old boy.

Officers Gregory Vickers, 46, and Jay Soares, 41, were in plainclothes driving an unmarked cruiser on Dudley Street in Roxbury about 10 p.m. when they passed a terrified woman clutching a boy in her arms.

“She was panicking,” Vickers said. “She was in a state of shock, actually.”

Soares whipped the cruiser around, and the officers hopped out to see what was wrong. The boy the woman was holding was not breathing.

“His eyes were bugging out of his head,” Soares said.

The two immediately radioed Boston EMS, then started first aid.

The mother later told the officers that she was in the area visiting relatives. She said she was about to leave and the boy was in the back of her car when he started eating a lollipop that lodged in his throat.

While Vickers held the boy, Soares repeatedly struck him from behind in an attempt to free the candy from his windpipe.

Yesterday, Vickers said all he could think of as he tried to save the lad was his five grandchildren, ages 2 to 10.

The candy partially dislodged, which kept the boy breathing in the seconds it took for the ambulance to arrive. Soares said he and his partner then passed the boy off to paramedics, who went to work on him and finally freed the lollipop.

“To the great delight of everyone, we heard him crying in the back of ambulance six,” Soares said.

The boy was rushed toChildren’s Hospital where he was treated and released. The mother later profusely thanked each officer.